On This Day in History

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December 12



1787 - Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1792 - In Vienna, 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven received one of his first lessons in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn.

1800 - Washington, DC, was established as the capital of the United States.

1805 - Henry Wells was born in Thetford, VT. He was one of the founders of the American Express Company and he teamed up with William Fargo to form the Wells Fargo Company.

1863 - Norwegian painter Edvard Munch was born. His most known work is "The Scream."

1870 - Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker to be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.

1896 - Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London.

1897 - The comic strip"The Katzenjammer Kids" (Hans and Fritz), by Rudolph Dirks, appeared in the New York Journal for the first time.

1899 - George Grant patented the wooden golf tee.

1900 - Charles M. Schwab formed the United States Steel Corporation.

1901 - The first radio signal to cross the Atlantic was picked up near St. John's Newfoundland, by inventor Guglielmo Marconi.

1912 - The Mother's Day International Association was incorporated with the purpose of furthering meaningful observations of Mother's Day.

1915 - The first all-metal aircraft, the German Junkers J1, made its first flight.

1917 - Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town in Nebraska. The farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls.

1925 - The "Motel Inn," the first motel in the world, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA.

1937 - Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat "Panay" on China's Yangtze River. Japan apologized for the attack, and paid $2.2 million in reparations.

1946 - A United Nations committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate to be the site of the UN's headquarters. The land was offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

1947 - The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.

1951 - The U.S. Navy Department announced that the world's first nuclear powered submarine would become the sixth ship to bear the name Nautilus.

1955 - It was announced that the Ford Foundation gave $500,000,000 to private hospitals, colleges and medical schools.

1955 - British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft.

1963 - Kenya gained its independence from Britain.

1975 - Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to a charge of trying to kill U.S. President Ford in San Francisco the previous September.

1982 - 20,000 women encircled Greenham Common air base in Britain in protest against proposed cite of U.S. Cruise missiles there.

1983 - Car bombs were set off in front of the French and U.S. embassies in Kuwait City. Shiite extremists were responsible for the five deaths and 86 wounded. Total of five bombs went off in different locations.

1984 - In a telephone conversation with U.S. President Reagan, William J. Schroeder complained of a delay in his Social Security benefits. Schroeder received a check the following day.

1985 - 248 American soldiers and eight crewmembers were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed in Gander, Newfoundland after takeoff.

1989 - Britain forcibly removed 51 Vietnamese from Hong Kong and returned them to their homeland.

1989 - Leona Helmsley was fined $7 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.

1994 - The Brazilian Supreme Court acquitted former President Fernando Collor de Mello of corruption charges that had forced him to resign in 1992.

1994 - IBM stopped shipments of personal computers with Intel's flawed Pentium chip.

1995 - The U.S. Senate stopped a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against the American flag.

1995 - Two French airmen shot down over Bosnia arrived home after almost four months of being held captive by the Bosnian Serbs.

1997 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," went on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a Lebanese national. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

1997 - The U.S. Justice Department ordered Microsoft to sell its Internet browser separately from its Windows operating system to prevent it from building a monopoly of Web access programs.

1997 - Denver Pyle received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - The House Judiciary Committee rejected censure, and approved the final article of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton. The case was submitted to the full House for a verdict.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court found that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was unconstitutional. U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next day.

2000 - Timothy McVeigh, over the objections of his lawyers, abandoned his final round of appeals and asked that his execution be set within 120 days. McVeigh was convicted of the April 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Fedal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, that killed 168 and injured 500.

2000 - The Texas Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez to a record breaking 10-year, $252 million contract. The contract amount broke all major league baseball records and all professional sports records.

2001 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would implement minimum federal election standards and provide funding to help states modernize their voting systems.

2001 - Gerardo Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for being the leader of a Cuban spy ring. His conviction was based on his role in the infiltration of U.S. military bases and in the deaths of four Cuban-Americans whose planes were shot down five years before.

2001 - In Beverly Hills, CA, actress Winona Ryder was arrested at Saks Fifth Avenue for shoplifting and possessing pharmaceutical drugs without a prescription. The numerous items of clothing and hair accessories were valued at $4,760.

2002 - North Korea announced that it would reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials believed was being used to develop weapons.




Birthdays


Jennifer Connelly 1970

 

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December 13




1577 - Five ships under the command of Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took almost three years.

1636 - The United States National Guard was created when militia regiments were organized by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1642 - New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.

1769 - Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.

1809 - The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.

1816 - John Adamson received a patent for a dry dock.

1862 - In America, an estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded when Union forces were defeated by Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

1883 - The border between Ontario and Manitoba was established.

1884 - Percy Everitt received a patent for the first coin-operated weighing machine.

1913 - The Federal Reserve System was established as the first U.S. central bank.

1913 - It was announced by authorities in Florence, Italy, that the "Mona Lisa" had been recovered. The work was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911.

1918 - U.S. President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit a European country while holding office.

1921 - Britain, France, Japan and the United States signed the Pacific Treaty.

1937 - Japanese forces took the Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing). An estimated 200,000 Chinese were killed over the next six weeks. The event became known as the "Rape of Nanking."

1944 - During World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack. 138 people were killed in the attack.

1961 - Anna Mary Robertson Moses, "Grandma Moses," passed away at the age of 101.

1964 - In El Paso, TX, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande River, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border. This ended a century-old border dispute.

1966 - The rights to the first four Super Bowls were sold to CBS and NBC for total of $9.5 million.

1978 - The Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony U.S. dollar. The coin began circulation the following July.

1980 - Three days after a disputed general election, Uganda’s President Milton Obote was returned to office.

1981 - Authorities in Poland imposed martial law in an attempt to crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. Martial law ended formally in 1983.

1982 - The Sentry Armored Car Company in New York discovered that $11 million had been stolen from its headquarters overnight. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history.

1987 - U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, that the Reagan administration would begin making funding requests for the proposed Star Wars defense system.

1988 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, were it had recovened after the United States had refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York.

1988 - A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million.

1989 - South African President F.W. de Klerk met for the first time with imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk's office in Cape Town.

1991 - Five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union agreed to join the new Commonwealth of Independent States.

1991 - North Korea and South Korea signed a historic non-aggression agreement.

1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must receive a hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.

1993 - The European Community ratified a treaty creating the European Economic Area (EEA), to go into effect January 1, 1994.

1994 - An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 people.

1995 - China's most influential democracy activist, Wei Jingsheng, who already had spent 16 years in prison, was sentenced to 14 more years.

1997 - The Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA, was opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

1998 - Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.

1998 - Gary Anderson (Minnesota Vikings) kicked six field goals against Baltimore. In the game Anderson set an National Football League (NFL) record for 34 straight field goals without a miss.

2000 - U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 Presidential election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Florida electoral votes were won by only 537 votes, which decided the election. The election had been contested up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said that the Florida recount (supported by the Florida Supreme Court) was unconstitutional.

2000 - Seven convicts, the "Texas 7," escaped from Connally Unit in Kenedy, TX, southeast of San Antonio, by overpowering civilian workers and prison employees. They fled with stolen clothing, pickup truck and 16 guns and ammunition.

2001 - The U.S. government released a video tape that showed Osama bin Laden and others discussing their knowledge of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush served formal notice to Russia that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2001 - Israel severed all contact with Yasser Arafat. Israel also launched air strikes and sent troops into Palestine in response to a bus ambush that killed 10 Israelis.

2001 - Gunmen stormed the Indian Parliament and killed seven people and injured 18. Security forces killed the attackers during a 90-minute gunbattle.

2001 - NBC-TV announced that it would begin running hard liquor commercials. NBC issued a 19-point policy that outlined the conditions for accepting liquor ads.

2001 - Michael Frank Goodwin was arrested and booked on two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy and three special circumstances (lying in wait, murder for financial gain and multiple murder) in connection to the death of Mickey Thompson. Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway on March 16, 1988. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.



Birthdays


Jamie Foxx 1967

 

[tkD]

December 14




1503 - Physician, astrologer and clairvoyant Nostradamus was born at St. Remy, Provence, France.

1798 - David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented the nut and bolt machine.

1799 - The first president of the United States, George Washington, died at the age 67.

1819 - Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.

1896 - Gen. James H. Doolittle, who led the first air raid on Japan during World War II, was born.

1900 - Professor Max Planck of Berlin University revealed his revolutionary Quantum Theory.

1903 - Orville Wright made the first attempt at powered flight. The engine stalled during take-off and the plane was damaged in the attempt. Three days later, after repairs were made, the modern aviation age was born when the plane stayed aloft for 12 seconds and flew 102 feet.

1911 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole. He reached the destination 35 days ahead of Captain Robert F. Scott.

1918 - For the first time in Britain women (over 30) voted in a General Election.

1939 - The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.

1945 - Josef Kramer, known as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were executed in Hamelin for the crimes they committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps.

1946 - The U.N. General Assembly voted to establish the United Nation's headquarters in New York City.

1959 - Archbishop Makarios was elected Cyprus' first president.

1962 - The U.S. space probe Mariner II approached Venus. It transmitted information about the planet's atmosphere and surface temperature.

1975 - Six South Moluccan terrorists surrendered to police after holding 23 people hostage for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.

1981 - Israel annexed the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in war in 1967.

1983 - The U.S. battleship New Jersey fired on Syrian positions in Lebanon for the first time after American F-14 reconnaissance flights were fired on.

1984 - Howard Cosell retired from the NFL's Monday Night Football.

1985 - Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she formally took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

1986 - The experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. The trip took nine days to complete.

1987 - Chrysler pled no contest to federal charges of selling several thousand vehicles as new. Chrysler employees had driven the vehicles with the odometer disconnected.

1988 - CBS won the exclusive rights to major league baseball's 1990-94 seasons for $1.1 billion.

1988 - The first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service.

1990 - After 30 years in exile, ANC president Oliver Tambo returned to South Africa.

1993 - A judge in Colorado struck down the state's voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting gay rights laws, calling it unconstitutional.

1993 - The United Mine Workers approved a five-year contract that ended a strike that had reached seven states and involved some of the nation's biggest coal operators.

1995 - The presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia signed the Dayton Accords to end fighting in Bosnia.

1995 - AIDS patient Jeff Getty received the first-ever bone-marrow transplant from a baboon.

1997 - Iran's newest president, Mohammad Khatami, called for a dialogue with the people of the United States. The preceding Iranian leaders had reviled the U.S. as "The Great Satan."

1997 - Mike Gartner (Phoenix Coyotes) became only the fifth player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 700 career goals.

1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to Cuba.

1998 - Hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.

1999 - U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.

1999 - Charles M. Schulz announced he was retiring the "Peanuts" comic strip. The last original "Peanuts" comic strip was published on February 13, 2000.

2000 - It was announced that American businessman Edmond Pope would be released from a Russian prison for humanitarian reasons. Pope had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after his conviction on espionage charges.

2001 - European Union leaders agreed to dispatch 3,000-4,000 troops to join an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

2001 - The first commercial export, since 1963, of U.S. food to Cuba began. The 24,000 metric tons for corn were being sent to replenish what was lost when Hurricane Michelle struck on November 4.

 

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December 15



1654 - A meteorological office established in Tuscany began recording daily temperature readings.

1791 - In the U.S., the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect following ratification by the state of Virginia.

1815 - Jane Austen's "Emma" was published.

1840 - Napoleon Bonapart's remains were interred in Les Invalides in Paris, having been brought from St. Helena, where he died in exile.

1854 - In Philadelphia, the first street cleaning machine was put into use.

1877 - Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.

1890 - American Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, SD, during an incident with Indian police working for the U.S. government.

1925 - The third Madison Square Gardens opened.

1938 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.

1939 - "Gone With the Wind," produced by David O. Selznick based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, premiered at Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta. The movie starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into practice Bill of Rights Day.

1944 - A single-engine plane carrying U.S. Army Major Glenn Miller disappeared in thick fog over the English Channel while en route to Paris.

1944 - American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.

1944 - Dr. R. Townley Paton and a small group of doctors laid the groundwork for the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration.

1961 - Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem by an Israeli court. He had been tried on charges for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.

1961 - The U.N. General Assembly voted against a Soviet proposal to admit Communist China as a member.

1964 - Canada's House of Commons approved a newly designed flag thereby dropping the Canadian "Red Ensign" flag.

1965 - Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered within 10 feet of each other while in orbit around the Earth.

1966 - Walter Elias "Walt" Disney died in Los Angeles at the age of 65.

1970 - The Soviet probe Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land softly on the surface of Venus. The probe only survived the extreme heat and pressure for about 23 minutes and transmitted the first data received on Earth from the surface of another planet.

1973 - J. Paul Getty III was found in southern Italy after being held captive for five months, during which his right ear was cut off and sent to a newspaper in Rome.

1978 - U.S. President Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year's Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.

1979 - The former shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, left the United States for Panama. He had gone to the U.S. for medical treatment on October 22, 1979.

1979 - In a preliminary ruling, the International Court of Justice ordered Iran to release all hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.

1982 - Paul "Bear" Bryant announced his retirement as head football coach at the University of Alabama.

1982 - Gibraltar's frontier with Spain was opened to pedestrian use after 13 years.

1983 - The last 80 U.S. combat soldiers in Grenada withdrew. It was just over seven weeks after the U.S.-led invasion of the Caribbean island.

1989 - An uprising in Romania began as demonstrators gathered to prevent the arrest of the Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident clergyman.

1992 - IBM announced it would eliminate 25-thousand employees in the coming year.

1992 - Bettino Craxi, the leader of Italy's Socialist Party, was informed that he was under investigation in a burgeoning corruption scandal in the northern city of Milan.

1992 - El Salvador's government and leftist guerrilla leaders formally declared the end of the country's 12-year civil war.

1993 - In Geneva, 117 countries completed the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The countries agreed on a reform package.

1993 - The prime ministers of Britain and the Republic of Ireland (John Major and Albert Reynolds respectively) made the "Downing Street Declaration," stating the basis for trying to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.

1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to take over the peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.

1995 - French rail workers voted to end a three-week-old strike.

1996 - Boeing Co. announced plans to pay $13.3 billion to acquire rival aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corp.

1997 - The San Francisco 49ers retired Joe Montana's number 16 during halftime of a game against the Denver Broncos.

1999 - Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington, DC, with the mediation of U.S. President Clinton.

2000 - The Chernobyl atomic power plant in Kiev, Ukraine, was shut down.

2000 - New York Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed to accept an $8 million book deal with Simon & Schuster. The book was to be about her eight years in the White House. The advance was the highest ever to be paid to a member of the U.S. Congress.

2001 - It was announced that Siena Heights University would begin offering a class called "Animated Philosophy and Religion." The two-credit class would cover how religion and philosophy are part of popular culture and is based on the television series "The Simpsons."


Birthdays

Flex

 

[tkD]

December 16



1653 - Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1773 - Nearly 350 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor off of British ships by Colonial patriots. The patriots were disguised as Indians. The act was to protest taxation without representation and the monopoly the government granted to the East India Company.

1809 - Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.

1835 - In New York, 530 buildings were destroyed by fire.

1838 - The Zulu chief Dingaan was defeated by a small force of Boers at Blood River celebrated in South Africa as 'Dingaan's Day'.

1850 - The first immigrant ship, the Charlotte Jane, arrived at Lyttleton, New Zealand.

1901 - "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," by Beatrix Potter, was printed for the first time.

1903 - Women ushers were employed for the first time at the Majestic Theatre in New York City.

1905 - Sime Silverman published the first issue of "Variety".

1912 - The first postage stamp to depict an airplane was issued was a 20-cent parcel-post stamp.

1916 - Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen.

1940 - French Premier Petain arrested Pierre Laval after learning of a plan for Laval to seize power and set up a new government with German support.

1944 - During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war.

1950 - U.S. President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."

1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet" in a special preview on "Chesterfield Sound Off Time". The show began officially on January 3, 1952.

1960 - A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City, killing 134 people.

1972 - The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied in a 14-game regular season. The Dolphins went on to defeat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.

1973 - O.J. Simpson broke Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record in the NFL. Brown had rushed for 1,863 yards, while Simpson attained 2,003 yards.

1984 - The play "Diamonds" opened in New York City.

1985 - Reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New York City restaurant.

1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftist priest, was elected president in Haiti's first democratic elections.

1991 - The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.

1993 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for negotiations on a comprehensive test ban.

1995 - Many U.S. government functions were again closed as a temporary finance provision expired and the budget dispute between President Clinton and Republicans in Congress continued.

1995 - NATO launched a military operation in support of the Bosnia peace agreement.

1996 - Britain's agriculture minister announced the slaughter of an additional 100,000 cows thought to be at risk of contracting BSE in an effort to persuade the EU to lift its ban on Britain.

1998 - The U.S. and Britain fired hundreds of missiles on Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.

1999 - Sigourney Weaver received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - Torrential rains and mudslides in Venezuela left thousands of people dead and forced at least 120,000 to leave their homes.

2000 - Researchers announced that information from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicated that Ganymede appeared to have a liquid saltwater ocean beneath a surface of solid ice. Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, is the solar system's largest moon. The discovery is considered important since water is a key ingredient for life.

2000 - U.S. President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state. Powell was sworn in January 20, 2001.

2001 - In Tora Bora, Afghanistan, tribal fighters announced that they had taken the last al-Quaida positions. More than 200 fighters were killed and 25 captured. They also announced that they had found no sign of Osama bin Laden.

2001 - Cuba received the first commercial food shipment from the United States in nearly 40 years. The shipment was sent to help Cuba after Hurrican Michelle hit Cuba on November 4, 2001.

2001 - A British newspaper, The Observer, reported that a notebook had been found at an al-Quaida training camp in southern Afghanistan. The notebook contained a "blue print" for an bomb attack on London's financial district.

2002 - Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The 1997 treaty was aimed a reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

 

[tkD]

December 17



1777 - France recognized American independence.

1791 - A traffic regulation in New York City established the first street to go "One Way."

1830 - South American patriot Simon Bolivar died in Colombia.

1895 - George L. Brownell received a patent for his paper-twine machine.

1903 - The first successful gasoline-powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the flight.

1925 - Col. William "Billy" Mitchell was convicted of insubordination at his court-martial.

1936 - The "The Rudy Vallee Show" debuted on NBC.

1939 - The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew, bringing the World War II Battle of the Rio de la Plata off Uruguay to an end.

1944 - The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast which ensured that Japanese-Americans were released from detention camps.

1953 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to approve RCA’s color television specifications.

1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

1959 - The film "On the Beach" premiered in New York City and in 17 other cities. It was the first motion picture to debut simultaneously in major cities around the world.

1969 - The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.

1969 - Television history was made when Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger were married on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.

1973 - Thirty-one people were killed at Rome airport when Arab guerillas hijacked a German airliner.

1975 - Lynette Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of U.S. President Ford.

1976 - WTCG-TV, Atlanta, GA, changed its call letters to WTBS, and was uplinked via satellite. The station became the first commercial TV station to cover the entire U.S.

1978 - OPEC decided to raise oil prices by 14.5% by the end of 1979.

1979 - Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami, FL. Four white police officers were later acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie's death.

1986 - Wayne "Danke Schoen" Newton won a $19.2 million suit against NBC News. NBC had aired reports claiming a link between Newton and mob figures. The reports were proven to be false.

1986 - Davina Thompson became the world's first recipient of a heart, lungs, and liver transplant.

1986 - Eugene Hasefus was pardoned and then released by Nicaragua. He had been convicted of running guns to the Contras.

1992 - U.S. President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

1992 - Israel deported over 400 Palestinians to Lebanese territory in an unprecedented mass expulsion of suspected militants.

1996 - Peruvian guerrillas took hundreds of people hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima. The siege ended on April 22, 1997, with a commando raid that resulted in the deaths of all the rebels, two commandos and one hostage.

1996 - The Red Cross pulled all but a few of its western staff out of Chechnya after six foreign aid workers were killed by masked gunmen.

1997 - U.S. President Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. The act removed protection from individuals who claimed that they took no direct financial gains from stealing copyrighted works and downloading them from the Internet.

1998 - U.S. House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston admitted he'd had extramarital affairs.

2000 - Terrell Owens (San Francisco 49ers) caught an NFL-record 20 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears. The previous record was held by Tom Fears (Los Angeles Rams) with 18 catches on December 3, 1950, against the Green Bay Packers. Owens also broke Jerry Rice's franchise record of 16 receptions set in 1994 against the Los Angeles Rams.

2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to have ready for use within two years a system for protecting American territory, troops and allies from ballistic missile attacks.

2002 - McDonald's Corp. warned that they would report its first quarterly loss in its 47-year history.

2002 - The insurance and finance company Conseco Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection. It was the third-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

2002 - Congo's government, opposition parties and rebels signed a peace agreement that ended four years of civil war.

2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years. The bill aimed to tighten borders and aviation security. It also created a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director.



Birthdays

El Freako 1981

 

[tkD]

December 18



1787 - New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1796 - The "Monitor," of Baltimore, MD, was published as the first Sunday newspaper.

1862 - The first orthopedic hospital was organized in New York City. It was called the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled.

1865 - Slavery was abolished in the United States with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution being ratified.

1898 - A new automobile speed record was set at 39 mph (63 kph).

1903 - The Panama Canal Zone was acquired 'in perpetuity' by the U.S. for an annual rent.

1912 - The U.S. Congress prohibited the immigration of illiterate persons.

1912 - The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced. It was proved to be a hoax in 1953.

1915 - U.S. President Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.

1916 - During World War I, after 10 months of fighting the French defeated the Germans in the Battle of Verdun.

1917 - The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1935 - A $1 silver certificate was issued for the first time in the U.S.

1936 - Su-Lin, the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China, arrived in San Francisco, CA. The bear was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750.

1940 - Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation "Barbarossa" was launched in June 1941.

1944 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also stated that undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.

1950 - NATO foreign ministers approved plans to defend Western Europe, including the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.

1953 - WPTZ, in Philadelphia, PA, presented a Felso commercial, it was the first color telecast seen on a local station.

1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuted on CBS-TV.

1956 - Japan was admitted to the United Nations.

1957 - The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania went online. It was the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States. It was taken out of service in 1982.

1963 - Ron Clarke set a world record when he ran six miles in 28 minutes and 15.6 seconds.

1965 - Kenneth LeBel jumped 17 barrels on ice skates.

1969 - Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

1970 - Divorce became legal in Italy.

1972 - The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The attack ended 12 days later.

1973 - The IRA launched its Christmas bombing campaign in London.

1979 - The sound barrier was broken on land for the first time by Stanley Barrett when he drove at 739.6 mph.

1983 - Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) scored his 100th point in the 34th game of the season.

1984 - Christopher Guest and Jamie Lee Curtis were married.

1987 - Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street's biggest insider-trading scandal. He only served about two years of the sentence.

1996 - Despite a U.N. truce, factional fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, broke out in which at least 300 fighters and civilians were killed.

1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives began the debate on the four articles of impeachment concerning U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S. history that process had begun.

1998 - Russia recalled its U.S. ambassador in protest of the U.S. attacks on Iraq.

1998 - South Carolina proceeded with the U.S.' 500th execution since capital punishment was restored.

1999 - After living atop an ancient redwood in Humboldt County, CA, for two years, environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill came down, ending her anti-logging protest.

2001 - Mark Oliver Gebel, a Ringling Bros. Circus star, went on trial for animal abuse. The charges stemmed from an incident with an elephant that was marching too slowly into a circus performance on August 25, 2001. He was acquitted on December 21, 2001.

2001 - A fire damaged New York City's St. John Cathedral. The cathedral is the largest in the United States.

2001 - In Seattle, WA, Gary Leon Ridgeway pled innocent to the charge of murder for four of the Green River serial killings. He had been arrested on November 30, 2001.

2002 - Nine competing designs for the World Trade Center site were unveiled. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. expected to choose a design by January 31, 2003.

2003 - Adam Rich was arrested for driving onto a closed section of Interstate 10 and nearly struck a California Highway Patrol car.




Birthdays


Ray Liotta 1955
Brad Pitt 1963
DMX 1970
Katie Holmes 1978
Phil "The Gift" Heath 1979
Christina Aguilera 1980

 

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December 19




1154 - Henry II became King of England.

1562 - The Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion.

1732 - Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."

1776 - Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay.

1777 - General George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter.

1842 - Hawaii's independence was recognized by the U.S.

1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published in England.

1871 - Corrugated paper was patented by Albert L. Jones.

1887 - Jake Kilrain and Jim Smith fought in a bare knuckles fight which lasted 106 rounds and 2 hours and 30 minutes. The fight was ruled a draw and was halted due to darkness.

1903 - The Williamsburg Bridge opened in New York City. It opened as the largest suspension bridge on Earth and remained the largest until 1924. It was also the first major suspension bridge to use steel towers to support the main cable.

1907 - A coalmine explosion in Jacobs Creek, PA, killed 239 workers.

1917 - The first games of the new National Hockey League (NHL) were played. Five teams made up the league: Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Wanderers.

1918 - Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column in "The New York Globe".

1932 - The British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting overseas with its "Empire Service" to Australia.

1957 - Meredith Wilson’s "The Music Man" opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. It ran for 1,375 shows.

1957 - Air service between London and Moscow was inaugurated.

1959 - Penn State’s Nittany Lions beat Alabama, 7-0, in the first Liberty Bowl football game.

1959 - Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the U.S. Civil War.

1961 - "Judgment At Nuremberg" opened in New York City.

1972 - Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

1973 - Johnny Carson started a fake toilet-paper scare on the "Tonight Show."

1978 - Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Lok Sabha for contempt and imprisoned.

1979 - ESPN televised its first NHL game. The teams were the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whales.

1984 - Wayne Gretsky, 23, of the Edmonton Oilers, became only the 18th player in the National Hockey League (NHL) to score more than 1,000 points.

1984 - Ted Hughes was appointed England's poet laureate.

1984 - Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

1985 - Jan Stenerud announced his retirement from the NFL. The football kicker held the record for the most career field goals with 373.

1985 - ABC Sports announced that it was severing ties with Howard Cosell and released ‘The Mouth’ from all TV commitments. Cosell continued on ABC Radio for another five years.

1986 - The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile, and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner.

1989 - U.S. troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega.

1990 - Bo Jackson (Los Angeles Raiders) became the first athlete to be chosen for All Star Games in two sports.

1996 - The school board of Oakland, CA, voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics." The board later reversed its stance.

1997 - "Titanic" opened in American movie theaters.

1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives.

1998 - A four-day bombing of Iraq by British and American forces ended.

2000 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden.

2003 - Images for the new design for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site were released. The building slopes into a spire that reaches 1,776 feet.

 

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December 20




1606 - The "Susan Constant," "Godspeed" and "Discovery" set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.

1699 - Peter the Great ordered that the Russian New Year be changed from September 1 to January 1.

1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.

1803 - The United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.

1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.

1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union.

1864 - Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, GA as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."

1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.

1880 - New York's Broadway became known as the "Great White Way" when it was lighted by electricity.

1892 - Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman patented the pneumatic tire.

1928 - Mail delivery by dog sled began in Lewiston, ME.

1933 - The film "Flying Down to Rio" was first shown in New York.

1938 - Vladimir Kosma Zworykin patented the iconoscope television system.

1946 - The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its "official" world premiere. James Stewart and Donna Reed star in the film.

1946 - In Indochina (Vietnam), full-scale guerrilla warfare between Vietnam partisans and French troops began.

1954 - Buick Motor Company signed Jackie Gleason to one of the largest contracts ever entered into with an entertainer. Gleason agreed to produce 78 half-hour shows over a two-year period for $6,142,500.

1962 - A world indoor pole-vault record was set by Don Meyers when he cleared 16 feet, 11/4 inches.

1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.

1968 - Author John Steinbeck died at the age of 66.

1973 - The Spanish premier Carrero Blanco was assassinated in Madrid.

1987 - More than 3,000 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion.

1989 - General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a United States invasion force invited by the new civilian government. The project was known as Operation Just Cause.

1991 - Ante Markovic resigned as federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

1991 - Oliver Stone's "JFK" opened in the U.S.

1994 - Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.

1994 - Ivan Lendl retired after a 17-year tennis career.

1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, crashed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard.

1996 - Doctors reported that a Cypriot woman who had taken fertility drugs was carrying about 11 embryos.

1998 - In Houston, TX, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to the only known living set of octuplets.

1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.

1999 - Sovereignty over the colony of Macao was transferred from Portugal to China.

2001 - The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.

2001 - Argentina's President Fernando De la Rua resigned after two years in power.

2001 - The first British peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan to help the nation heal after decades of war.

 

[tkD]

December 21




1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.

1849 - The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1879 - Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending.

1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.

1913 - The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the "Fun" supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published.

1914 - Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance".

1925 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow.

1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.

1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.

1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

1971 - The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general.

1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.

1981 - Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition.

1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.

1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.

1991 - Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1996 - After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.

1998 - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government.

1998 - A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998.

1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved.

2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.

2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.



Birthdays

Samuel L. Jackson 1948

 

[tkD]

December 22



1715 - James Stuart, the "Old Pretender", landed at Petershead after his exile in France.

1775 - A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.

1807 - The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.

1864 - During the American Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to U.S. President Lincoln from Georgia. The message read, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1877 - The "American Bicycling Journal" went on sale for the first time.

1894 - The United States Golf Association was formed in New York City.

1894 - French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.

1895 - German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen made the first X-ray, of his wife's hand.

1910 - U.S. Postal savings stamps were issued for the first time. They were discontinued in 1914.

1939 - Gloria Jacobs became the first girl to hold a world pistol record when she shot 299 out of a possible 300 points. She was 17 years old at the time.

1943 - Sporting goods manufacturers received permission to use synthetic rubber for the core of baseballs.

1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with U.S. President Roosevelt.

1956 - Colo, the first gorilla to be born in captivity, was born at the Columbus, Ohio zoo.

1956 - The last British and French forces evacuated Egypt.

1961 - James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam, while U.S. involvement was still limited to the provision of military advisers.

1976 - The last show of "Let’s Make A Deal" was aired.

1984 - New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway. Goetz claimed they were about to rob him.

1989 - Romania's hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown in a popular uprising.

1990 - Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president.

1991 - The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found along a highway in Lebanon.

1996 - A car bomb exploded in Belfast, injuring a known IRA supporter. Police suspected that Protestant loyalists were responsible for the attack.

1998 - A unit of RJR Nabsico pled guilty to attempting to smuggle cigarettes into Canada.

2001 - Thirty Afghans, including two women, were sworn in as part of the new interim government in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the head of the post-Taliban government.

 

[tkD]

December 23



1783 - George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.

1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore (" 'Twas the night before Christmas...") was published.

1834 - English architect Joseph Hansom patented his 'safety cab', better known as the Hansom cab.

1852 - The Theatre of Celestial John opened on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, CA. It was the first Chinese theatre in the U.S.

1880 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company of Europe.

1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.

1893 - The Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Hansel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.

1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.

1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.

1930 - Ruth Elizabeth Davis, an unknown actress, arrived in Hollywood, under contract to Universal Studios. Universal changed her name to Bette Davis for the movies.

1938 - "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" was heard for the final time on the radio.

1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.

1943 - "Hansel and Gretel," the opera, was televised on New York's WRBG. It was the first complete opera to be televised.

1947 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.

1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

1951 - A National Football League (NFL) championship game was televised nationally for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17. The DuMont Network had paid $75,000 for the rights to the game.

1953 - Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.

1954 - The Walt Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was released.

1957 - Dan Blocker made his acting debut on television in the "Restless Gun."

1965 - A 70-mph speed limit was introduced in Britain.

1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

1972 - The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the "Immaculate Reception." Pittsburgh's Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.

1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as they were attempting to flee their country.

1990 - Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of its six republics with non-Communist governments.

1995 - A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.

1995 - The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.

1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.

1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.

 

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December 24



1814 - The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.

1818 - Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany composed the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr.

1828 - William Burke who, with his partner William Hare, dug up the dead and murdered to sell the corpses for dissection, went on trial in Edinburgh.

1851 - A fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying about 35,000 volumes.

1865 - Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan.

1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, MA.

1914 - In World War I, the first air raid on Britain was made when a German airplane dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.

1928 - The first broadcast of "The Voice of Firestone" was heard.

1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.

1944 - The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of "The Andrews Sisters’ Eight-To-The-Bar-Ranch" on ABC Radio.

1944 - A German submarine torpedoed the Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville with 2,235 soldiers aboard. About 800 American soldiers died. The soldiers were crossing the English Channel to be reinforcements at the battle that become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

1948 - For the first time ever, a midnight Mass was broadcast on television. It was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

1948 - The first completely solar-heated house became occupied in Dover, MA.

1951 - NBC-TV presented, "Amal and the Night Visitors," the first opera written for television.

1951 - Libya achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, under King Idris.

1965 - A meteorite landed on Leicestershire. It weighed about 100lbs.

1966 - Luna 13 landed on the moon.

1967 - Joe Namath (New York Jets) became the first NFL quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards.

1968 - The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.

1968 - Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.

1979 - Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country's Marxist government.

1981 - Reggie Jackson announced that he would join Gene Autry’s California Angels for the 1982 season.

1985 - Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, announced that he was a non-smoker.

1989 - Ousted Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega took refuge at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City.

1990 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were married.

1992 - U.S. President Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

1997 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as "Carlos the Jackal," was sentenced by a French court to life in prison for the 1975 murders of two French investigators and a Lebanese national.

1998 - At Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, a tourist was hit by a piece of flying metal while waiting to board a ride. The man's wife and a Disneyland employee were also injured. Luan Phi Dawson died December 26th from his injuries.

1999 - Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bédié was overthrown in a coup.

1999 - An Indian Airplines plane was seized during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi. In Afghanistan, the 150 hostages were freed on December 31 after India released three Kashmir militants from prison.

2000 - 36 minutes after the end of a game, both the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins were called back to the playing field. The teams had to play the final 3 seconds of the game which the Dolphins had won 27-24. The end result did not change.

2000 - The "Texas 7," seven convicts that had escaped a Texas prison, robbed a sports store in Irving, TX. The suspects killed Officer Aubrey Hawkins, stole $70,000, 25 weapons and clothing. The men had escaped on December 13.

 

[tkD]

December 25




0800 - Charlemagne was crowned first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III.

1066 - William the Conqueror was crowned king of England.

1223 - St. Francis of Assisi assembled one of the first Nativity scenes, in Greccio, Italy.

1776 - Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, NJ.

1818 - "Silent Night" was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorff, Austria.

1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.

1894 - The University of Chicago became the first Midwestern football team to play on the west coast. U.C. defeated Stanford, 24-4, in Palo Alto, CA.

1896 - John Philip Sousa finally titled the melody "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

1914 - During World War I, British and German troops observed an unofficial truce and even playing football together on the Western Front.

1917 - The play "Why Marry?" opened at the Astor Theatre in New York City. "Why Marry?" was the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1926 - Hirohito became the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Emperor Taisho.

1930 - The Mt. Van Hoevenberg bobsled run at Lake Placid, New York opened to the public. It was the first bobsled track of international specifications to open in the U.S.

1931 - Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was "Hansel und Gretel" and was heard on the NBC network of stations.

1937 - Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of "Symphony of the Air" over NBC radio.

1939 - "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens, was read on CBS radio for the first time.

1941 - Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese.

1946 - W.C. Fields died at the age of 66.

1950 - Dick Tracy married on Tess Truehart.

1962 - The Department of Commerce Census Clock in Washington, DC, recorded the U.S. population on this day as 188,000,000.

1971 - The longest pro-football game to date finally ended when Garo Yepremian kicked a field goal in the second quarter of sudden death overtime. The Miami Dolphins defeated Kansas City, 27-24. The total game time was 82 minutes and 40 seconds.

1972 - The Nicaraguan capital Managua was hit by an earthquake. Over 10,000 people were killed.

1979 - The USSR invaded Afghanistan in a bid to halt civil war and protect USSR interests.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising.

1989 - Former baseball player and manager Billy Martin died in a truck crash in Fenton, NY.

1989 - Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

1998 - Seven days into their journey, Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden gave up their attempt to make the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. They ditched near Hawaii.

2000 - Over 300 people were killed and dozens were injured by fire at a Christmas party in the Chinese city of Luoyang. The incident occurred at the Dongdu Disco.

 

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December 26



1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.

1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.

1871 - The "Gods Grown Old" was performed for the first time. It ran for 64 shows.

1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.

1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.

1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.

1927 - The East-West Shrine football game featured numbers on both the front and back of players’ jerseys.

1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

1943 - The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.

1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.

1947 - Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast United States, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.

1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.

1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.

1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.

1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1974 - Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.

1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.

1986 - "Search for Tomorrow" was seen for the last time on CBS-TV. The show had been on the air for 35-years.

1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.

1991 - The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.

1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.

1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO.

1998 - Iraq announced that it would fire on U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the skies over northern and southern Iraq.

1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.

2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.

2002 - The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.

2004 - Under the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent 500-mph waves across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The tsunami killed at least 283,000 people in a dozen countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Thailand and India.

 

[tkD]

December 27



1703 - The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.

1831 - Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin's discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on evolution.

1845 - Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time. The event was the delivery of his own child in Jefferson, GA.

1900 - Carrie Nation staged her first raid on a saloon at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, KS. She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles that could be seen.

1904 - James Barrie's play "Peter Pan" premiered in London.

1927 - Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1938 - The first skimobile course in America opened in North Conway, NH.

1945 - The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.

1947 - The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC.

1949 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule.

1951 - In Cincinnati, OH, a Crosley automobile, with a steering wheel on the right side, became the first vehicle of its kind to be placed in service for mail delivery.

1965 - The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.

1968 - "The Breakfast Club" signed off for the last time on ABC radio, after 35 years on the air.

1971 - Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ "Peanuts" comic strip were on the cover of "Newsweek" magazine.

1978 - Spain adopted a new constitution and became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.

1979 - Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal succeeded President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed.

1985 - Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports. A total of twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel.

1985 - Dian Fossey, an American naturalist, was found murdered at a research station in Rawanda.

1992 - The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.

1996 - Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.

1997 - In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.

2000 - Mario Lemeiux (Pittsburgh Penguins) returned to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player after over 3 years of retirement. He was the first owner-player in the modern era of pro sports. Lemieux had purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins during his retirement from playing.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.

2002 - North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

2002 - Clonaid announced the birth of the first cloned human baby. The baby had been born December 26.

2002 - In Chechnya, at least 40 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the administartion of Grozny.

 

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December 28




1065 - Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

1694 - Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.

1732 - "The Pennsylvania Gazette," owned by Benjamin Franklin, ran an ad for the first issue of "Poor Richard’s Almanack."

1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Jackson.

1836 - Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.

1846 - Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1869 - William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, OH, patented an acceptable chewing gum.

1877 - John Stevens applied for a patent for his flour-rolling mill, which boosted production by 70%.

1879 - In Dundee, Scotland the central portion of the Tay Bridge collapsed as a train was passing over it. 75 people were killed.

1897 - "Cyrano de Bergerac," the play by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris, France.

1902 - The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Syracuse defeated the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.

1908 - An earthquake killed over 75,000 at Messina in Sicily.

1912 - The first municipally-owned street cars were used on the streets of San Francisco, CA.

1917 - The New York Evening Mail published a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.

1926 - The highest recorded cricket innings score of 1,107 runs was hit by Victoria, against New South Wales, in Melbourne.

1937 - The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.

1942 - R.O. Sullivan crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the 100th time.

1945 - The U.S. Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."

1950 - The Peak District became Britain's first designated National Park.

1956 - After five years on television, the last "Ding Dong School" was aired on NBC-TV.

1964 - Initial filming of the movie "Dr. Zhivago" began on location near Madrid, Spain. The movies total running time is 197 minutes.

1973 - The Chamber of Commerce of Akron, OH, terminated its association with the All-American Soap Box Derby. It was stated that the race had become "a victim of cheating and fraud."

1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.

1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, VA.

1982 - Nevell Johnson Jr. was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade. The event set off three days of race related disturbances that left another man dead.

1987 - The bodies of 14 relatives of R. Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover, AR. Simmons had gone on a shooting spree in Russellville that claimed two other lives.

1989 - Alexander Dubcek, who had been expelled from the Communist Party in 1970, was elected speaker of the Czech parliament.

1991 - Nine people died in a rush to get into a basketball game at City College in New York.

1995 - Pressure from German prosecutors investigating pornography forced CompuServe to set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups on the Internet for its customers.

2000 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch held a hearing to ensure that confessed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh understood that he was dropping his appeals. McVeigh said that he wanted an execution date, set but wanted to reserve the right to seek presidential clemency.

2000 - Shannen Doherty was arrested for driving under the influence.



Birthdays


Denzel Washington 1954

 

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December 29


1170 - St Thomas à Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II's orders.

1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.

1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.

1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.

1845 - U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.

1848 - U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.

1851 - The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston, MA.

1860 - The HMS Warrior, Britain's first seagoing first iron-hulled warship, was launched.

1888 - The first Performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.

1895 - The Jameson Raid from Mafikeng into Transvaal, which attempted to overthrow Kruger's Boer government, started.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China, following the Revolution.

1913 - "The Unwelcome Throne" was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first serial motion picture.

1934 - The first regular-season, college basketball game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University defeated Notre Dame 25-18.

1934 - Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

1937 - Babe Ruth returned to baseball as the new manager of the Class D, De Land Reds of the Florida State League. Ruth had retired from baseball in 1935.

1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, "Truth or Consequences", hosted by Ralph Edwards.

1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN.

1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule.

1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.

1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play, "In the Summer House", which closed after only 55 performances.

1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of "LIFE" magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.

1975 - A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.

1985 - Phil Donahue and a Soviet radio commentator hosted the "Citizens’ Summit" via satellite TV.

1986 - The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business after eighteen years and $47 million expended on restoration.

1989 - Following Hong Kong's decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese 'boat people' battled with riot police.

1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.

1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu'.

1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

 

[tkD]

December 30



1460 - At the Battle of Wakefield, in England's Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated and killed by the Lancastrians.

1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.

1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed, at Paignton, Devon, England.

1880 - The Transvaal was declared a republic. Paul Kruger became its first president.

1887 - A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.

1903 - About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.

1919 - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.

1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.

1924 - Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.

1927 - The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan.

1935 - Italian bombers destroyed a Sweedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.

1936 - The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI.

1940 - California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.

1942 - "Mr. and Mrs. North" debuted on NBC radio.

1944 - King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne.

1947 - King Michael of Romania abdicated in favor of a Communist Republic. He claimed he was forced from his throne.

1948 - "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that ran for 1,077 performances.

1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.

1954 - Pearl Bailey opened on Broadway in the play, "House of Flowers."

1954 - James Arness made his dramatic TV debut in "The Chase". The "Gunsmoke" series didn’t begin for Arness until the fall of 1955.

1961 - Jack Nicklaus lost his first attempt at pro golf to Gary Player in an exhibition match in Miami, FL.

1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1976 - The Smothers Brothers, Tom and Dick, played their last show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and retired as a team from show business. Both continued as solo artists and they reunited several years later.

1978 - Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.

1980 - "The Wonderful World of Disney" was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the TV. It was the longest-running series in prime-time television history.

1993 - Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.

1996 - A passenger train was bombed by Bodo separatists in India's eastern state of Assam. At least 26 people were killed and dozens were seriously injured.

1996 - About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

1997 - More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.




Birthdays


Tiger Woods 1975
Tyrese 1978
miamiracing 1988

 

[tkD]

December 31



1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage.

1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.

1711 - The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as commander-in-chief.

1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.

1841 - The State of Alabama enacted the first dental legislation in the U.S.

1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.

1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.

1877 - President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.

1879 - Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ.

1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.

1897 - Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.

1923 - In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben.

1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time.

1946 - U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1947 - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married.

1951 - The "Wild Bill Hickok" series came to radio following its success on television.

1953 - Willie Shoemaker broke his own record as he won his 485th race of the year.

1955 - General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year.

1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1961 - In the U.S., the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

1967 - The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17. The game is known as the Ice Bowl since it was played in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero. (NFL)

1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1978 - Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, DC. The event marked the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S.

1979 - At year end oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979.

1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140 people. Three hotel workers later pled guilty to charges in connection with the fire.

1990 - Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the U.S.S.R. won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1996 - NCR Corp. became an independent company.

1997 - Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.

1999 - Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Dehli on December 24.

1999 - Sarah Knauss died at the age of 119 years. She was the world's oldest person. She was born September 24, 1880.